17 May 2023, 09.00-09.45 CET

Fourth conversation: Europe-China Relations in Fraught Times - Drivers and Outlook 

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In our fourth conversation of the "Staying in Dialogue with China" webinar series, Markus HERRMANN, Co-Founder and Managing Director, China Macro Group (CMG); (Advisory) Board Member stars, Zurich, will be talking to Jorge TOLEDO ALBIÑANA, Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union to the People’s Republic of China, Beijing.

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EU-China relations have in recent years deteriorated rapidly. Against the backdrop of unfulfilled hopes in European capitals of China converging with market-based economies and providing a level playing field for foreign business, the EU Commission adopted a more assertive approach in its strategic outlook in 2019, describing China simultaneously as a cooperation and negotiation partner, an economic competitor in pursuit of technological leadership and a systemic rival promoting alternative models of governance. The Covid pandemic, human rights issues, a China perceived as belligerent in the Taiwan Strait as well as Beijing’s position in the Ukraine war are further straining the relationship. In a recent speech, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen characterized China concisely as “becoming more repressive at home and more assertive abroad”.

 

To deal with an increasingly revisionist China in the eyes of Brussels, the EU vows to strengthen its own industrial competitiveness and resilience, make better use of existing trade instruments, develop new defensive economic tools and strengthen alignment with its partners – in short, the EU adopts a strategy of “de-risking” its exposure to China, while at the same time strengthening “the international system itself”. What does this strategic adjustment mean for engagement and diplomacy on-the-ground? What role does the transatlantic relationship play? Is there still hope for a reinvigoration of the CAI? Where can and shall the EU and China continue to collaborate going forward? And what does this mean for European business in China?

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About the Speaker

Ambassador Jorge TOLEDO ALBIÑANA is a career diplomat from Spain. After taking his Degree in Law and entering the Diplomatic School in Spain, he joined the Spanish Foreign Service in 1989. Since then, except for three years in Senegal, where he was Ambassador of Spain from 2008 to 2011, his career has been devoted mostly to European Union Affairs. Among others, he was Spanish Secretary of State for the EU and European Affairs. In Asia, he has been posted to India and Japan before arriving to China in September 2022 as the Ambassador of the European Union.

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Kindly note: All webinars of this series are held under Chatham House Rules and will not be recorded.

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